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View Poll Results: Nanoha StrikerS - Overall series rating
Perfect 10 47 15.99%
9 out of 10 : Excellent 52 17.69%
8 out of 10 : Very Good 57 19.39%
7 out of 10 : Good 62 21.09%
6 out of 10 : Average 44 14.97%
5 out of 10 : Below Average 8 2.72%
4 out of 10 : Poor 11 3.74%
3 out of 10 : Bad 3 1.02%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad 1 0.34%
1 out of 10 : Painful 9 3.06%
Voters: 294. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 2009-09-19, 00:48   Link #321
MeisterBabylon
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And then there's the excellently-done Towards the Terra with its 200 characters. It's just 7Arcs' poor execution that caused the Cast Overload.
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Old 2009-09-19, 02:23   Link #322
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Originally Posted by Proto View Post
Personally I liked the main concept behind Strikers' plot, even if I'm not all that satisfied with the execution.
Yeah the concept wasn't all that bad, but since it's execution was plain terrible StrikerS main plot was just bad overall. But yeah that's just an opinion.

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Originally Posted by DezoPenguin View Post
Cast Overload really became a problem with StrikerS. In 26 episodes, it introduced more named characters than MGLN and A's did in their 26 episodes--and then used all of them alongside most of the returning cast from the first two shows. New villains are to be expected, but for example did there need to be so many new support staff in RF6? Mariel could have easily filled in for Shari's role, and Amy for at least one of Griffith and Luceno, and Alto is kind of superfluous. Likewise, Ginga's entire purpose in the story was to give Subaru an emotionally-charged one-on-one, but as Tea's battle showed, it wasn't necessary to have it be personal to be interesting (for example, they could have ditched Erio and Caro entirely and had Subaru take on Lutecia). It's not that any of the characters are necessarily bad, it's just that with so many of them, few could really get the development time necessary to really appreciate them and whenever they got a shot at the limelight it just broke up the flow of the story.
100% true. Another problem IMO are Strikers villains. Compared to Fate, Precia and Wolkies they were pathetic and there were far too many of them. Some Numbers might have been developed a bit in bonus materials but in StrikerS itself they were nothing more than talking drones with faces (maybe except Quattro). Of all StrikerS villains I liked only Lutecia, and only because I liked this whole bug summoner concept.
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Old 2009-09-19, 08:26   Link #323
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Originally Posted by Keroko View Post
And hence, limiters are used to prevent jealousy.

It's quite simple really. The rules are in place to prevent jealousy. Breaking the rules causes jealousy. Using limiters allows you to break the rules without causing jealousy. Hence, limiters prevent jealousy.
and you are, once again, ignoring half the argument.

Using Limiters don't allow you to break the rules without causing jealousy, it's a 'flaw' in the system that still cause jealousy, but a flaw that is abused in a few cases.

If you see the ep in question, Shari clearly says using limiters is "playing dirty", and "playing dirty" clearly means it's not something people like.

It's much more likely that cheating in this way is tacitly allowed because very few people would beg for a limiter (so in the grand scheme of things, there are few uses of this loophole), and thye need a way to bypass laws in emergency without creating a debacle.

We have seen RF6 disbanded a few months after jail's incarceration, so that abuse of the laws clearly wasn't long-term. It's quit likely the use of so many limiters was there only because all the high-ranking mages in questions flt they were needed, and there was some high-ranking brass behind them.
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Old 2009-09-19, 08:52   Link #324
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and you are, once again, ignoring half the argument.

Using Limiters don't allow you to break the rules without causing jealousy, it's a 'flaw' in the system that still cause jealousy, but a flaw that is abused in a few cases.

If you see the ep in question, Shari clearly says using limiters is "playing dirty", and "playing dirty" clearly means it's not something people like.
Which is utterly in contradiction with what Rein says. "In cases where many excellent mages are in one unit, magical power limiters are used to keep the peace."

In other words: Limiters are used to prevent bitterness between units. It's only after that where Shari says 'there are still some who play dirty.' This would suggest that the line is not in correlation with limiters being used to keep peace, but rather people ignoring these rules altogether.
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Old 2009-09-19, 15:24   Link #325
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Yeah, StrikerS had a perfectly fine plot, except it was brought down by some bad execution and far too much focus on the Forwards. I mean, they were okay, but I think most of us went into the season to see Nanoha and Fate.
And that became a huge problem, since they tried to do some of each-- cater to fans of the previous seasons while trying to develop this new story, and the result... is a bit debatable. I think they were really being ambitious in creating this grand world with all sorts of plot threads, but most of them weren't really elaborated upon or hit the ground with a thud. It had great potential, but perhaps not in the span of 26 episodes especially when you have all those important training sessions.

Like many sequels IMO, StrikerS carried some of the same problems its predecessors -- particularly the first season-- but they tend to get more magnified. Season 1 was pretty aimless and it seemed like the show didn't know what it wanted to be. But about midway through, they found a focus and turned the series into what it is known today. A's basically channeled up what was good about season 1 and expanded upon it, which is probably why that series' flaws can be mostly ignored (at least for me)

In StrikerS, we see a similar identity crisis happening, except this one lasted longer since the series was longer. And it did a lot better when it finally did settle on something. Not as impressive as the previous seasons, but not bad either.
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Old 2009-09-19, 15:56   Link #326
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Originally Posted by Archon_Wing View Post
And that became a huge problem, since they tried to do some of each-- cater to fans of the previous seasons while trying to develop this new story, and the result... is a bit debatable. I think they were really being ambitious in creating this grand world with all sorts of plot threads, but most of them weren't really elaborated upon or hit the ground with a thud. It had great potential, but perhaps not in the span of 26 episodes especially when you have all those important training sessions.

*snip*

In StrikerS, we see a similar identity crisis happening, except this one lasted longer since the series was longer. And it did a lot better when it finally did settle on something. Not as impressive as the previous seasons, but not bad either.
That dovetails with something I've been noticing--the more I know from the Sound Stages, the manga, the subsequent series, and so on, the more I appreciate what's going on in StrikerS. Characters get fleshed out (or just more screen time), the world gets better developed, and so on and so forth. As an initial anime, the series did too much stage-setting for the franchise, so that the follow-ups within that franchise could better function (SSX, for example, I absolutely adored), but the series itself had notable flaws.

(I will say, though, that for me personally once the show reached the Augusta Hotel episodes the good started to outweigh the bad. The initial six episodes were badly paced and mishandled what they were trying to do, but the move into Teana's personal issues stepped things up well. I recall, though, when I saw the next episode preview for ep. 10, I almost was ready to scream, "No!!! Not more filler!?!?!?"--and thankfully, that's where the actual plot got going. (mean of them to surprise us as much as it did Subaru and Tea!)
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Old 2009-09-19, 16:13   Link #327
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I agree that the amount of characters in StrikerS was not really the main problem, and could have been workable. Season 1 tossed a fresh cast off 13 characters at us, and A's tossed 10/11 new characters our way with only 13 episodes each. StrikerS threw roughly 30 new characters our way with 26 episodes, which is only slightly over double the characters season 1 gave us, with twice the space to develop them. Out of those 30-something characters, roughly ten of them would not require much screentime as they were mostly background characters that served to either be people explaining tidbits of the past (Megane, Quint) or simply being there to show RF6 is more then just our heroes (Griffith, Mariel).

This gives us 26 episodes to develop a cast of around 20. More then enough with the proper pacing. However, pacing is often the most difficult part of any media product, and its hard to get right. Sometimes you trip, which is what Seven Arcs did with StrikerS. They tripped, wasted valuable screentime on training episodes and fanservice, and left the characters that were victimized by this to be picked up by future media productions.
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Old 2009-09-19, 16:29   Link #328
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I agree that the amount of characters in StrikerS was not really the main problem, and could have been workable. Season 1 tossed a fresh cast off 13 characters at us, and A's tossed 10/11 new characters our way with only 13 episodes each. StrikerS threw roughly 30 new characters our way with 26 episodes, which is only slightly over double the characters season 1 gave us, with twice the space to develop them. Out of those 30-something characters, roughly ten of them would not require much screentime as they were mostly background characters that served to either be people explaining tidbits of the past (Megane, Quint) or simply being there to show RF6 is more then just our heroes (Griffith, Mariel).
I can't argue your premise, but I think you're lowballing the cast lists a bit.

MGLN: Nanoha, Yuuno, Fate, Shiro, Momoko, Kyouya, Miyuki, Arisa, Suzuka, Raising Heart, Arf, Bardiche, Noel, Falin, Chrono, Lindy, Precia, Amy (18)

A's: Hayate, Signum, Vita, Shamal, Zafira, Gil, Lotte, Aria, Letti, Dr. Ishida, Reinforce, Laevatein, Graf Eisen (not counting Klarwind since it doesn't get a speaking role) (13)

StrikerS: Subaru, Teana, Erio, Caro, Ginga, Reinforce Zwei, Vice, Griffith, Luceno, Alto, Genya, Mach Caliber, Cross Mirage, Strada (again, not counting the Boost Devices since they don't...I believe...speak), Frederiche, Regius Gaiz, Auris, The Three Great Admirals, The Three Brains, Storm Raider, Jail, Uno, Due, Tre, Quattro, Cinque, Sein, Sette, Otto, Nove, Dieci, Wendi, Deed, Lutecia, Garyuu, Zest, Agito, Laguna, Carim, Verossa, Schach (41...or 43, if each Brain gets to be considered a different person)

And that's just the ones I can remember off the top of my head!
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Old 2009-09-19, 16:37   Link #329
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Yes, well, I generally don't count devices because lets face it, they don't need any development apart from hearing their voice and seeing their forms, which you'll see anyway.

And there are some other minor characters I might forget. Still, since most of those are minor characters, the list of major characters -AKA those that need development- still floats around the 20.

And then there is actual development in StrikerS that could just as well have been cut. Now this is the editor in me, but what did Vice's personal development, or heck, the character itself, add to the story? Cut away Vice's drama bits and it has no impact whatsoever on the story. I mean, I like the character, and I like the story, but if you had put me on the editors seat, Vice's backstory would have gone *snip snip* in favor of more important members of the cast.
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Old 2009-09-21, 21:26   Link #330
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It was good overall, but the problem, as already said is that with 26 episode they were unable to make a good development for the villians and other characters, the brains for example. But, I gave a 7.5-8 to the show.
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Old 2009-09-22, 09:49   Link #331
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Well I always thought that limiters in StrikerS were a really stupid plot device, but there is one plausible explenation for their existence. TSAB leaders may fear that really strong mages within their ranks could team up and destroy or take over their organisation. Considering that a single AAA rank and above mage has more firepower that a medium sized Earth country this fear is uderstandable. Don't forget that 90% of Mid citizens aren't mages and 99% of mages wouldn't be able to even scratch an AAA ranked mage. Considering that the vast majority of TSAB soldiers are nothing more than some levitating guys with plasma lances and weak personal shields and their army still use things like helicopters or tanks Nanoha and other elite mages are just as powerfull monsters on Mid as they would be on modern day Earth. If we imagine top class mages as TSAB equivalent of nuclear arsenals it's understandable they want to have some kind of supervision and control over them. I bet normal citizens wouldn't feel safe knowing there are 10y old little girls with enought firepower to vaporise a city running around.

On top of that RF6 gathered many (if not most) of the very best and strongest TSAB mages under the command of a former criminal. If Hayate suddenly decided to turn against TSAB and all her friends followed her she could very well take over the whole organization and become the new Empress or something like that.

That's why I think limiters themselves aren't such a bad idea, but the way they were used and explained in StrikerS is plain terrible. They are there to prevent jealousy between units... Really now are TSAB officers little kids or something... ah wait some of them are :P

If they were instead showed as tools in corrupted political games between TSAB admirals and factions or as means of forced control of powerfull mages who refused to join TSAB they could become a very good plot device.
This is personally how I view limiters as well... and, honestly, as much as I like Nanoha and Fate, if I was an everyday Mid citizen, I'd sleep much easier at night knowing that the government's personified WMDs had limiters strapped on them to ensure that if either one went rogue we at least had a manageable crisis on our hands instead of an unstoppable catastrophe.

Like you argued, Nanoha and Fate (and those of their power level) could do some really nasty damage to TSAB and various governments and even basic social structures if they went rogue and decided to lead a rebellion or revolution. The jealousy rationale is simply a pretext for the real reason that limiters are there, and it's a reason that makes pretty good sense to me.




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Originally Posted by DezoPenguin View Post
Cast Overload really became a problem with StrikerS. In 26 episodes, it introduced more named characters than MGLN and A's did in their 26 episodes--and then used all of them alongside most of the returning cast from the first two shows. New villains are to be expected, but for example did there need to be so many new support staff in RF6? Mariel could have easily filled in for Shari's role, and Amy for at least one of Griffith and Luceno, and Alto is kind of superfluous. Likewise, Ginga's entire purpose in the story was to give Subaru an emotionally-charged one-on-one, but as Tea's battle showed, it wasn't necessary to have it be personal to be interesting (for example, they could have ditched Erio and Caro entirely and had Subaru take on Lutecia). It's not that any of the characters are necessarily bad, it's just that with so many of them, few could really get the development time necessary to really appreciate them and whenever they got a shot at the limelight it just broke up the flow of the story.
I strongly agree. Sheer numbers is the main weakness of this franchise at this point, and is perhaps my only major criticism of it. In most respects, Nanoha is fantastic. This anime simply has too many background bureaucratic/support characters that are hard to care about since the focus is naturally on the front line fighters and their day-to-day lives. Perhaps you could care about the background characters if there were fewer prominent fighters that each demanded a fair bit of screen-time, but that is not the case here with Fate, Nanoha, Subaru, and Teana all more or less requiring to be on-screen at least 15 to 20% of the time as they are all basically co-main protagonists. There's simply not enough screen time left to develop numerous background characters that you can truly care about.
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Old 2009-09-23, 20:48   Link #332
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Originally Posted by Triple_R View Post
This is personally how I view limiters as well... and, honestly, as much as I like Nanoha and Fate, if I was an everyday Mid citizen, I'd sleep much easier at night knowing that the government's personified WMDs had limiters strapped on them to ensure that if either one went rogue we at least had a manageable crisis on our hands instead of an unstoppable catastrophe.

Like you argued, Nanoha and Fate (and those of their power level) could do some really nasty damage to TSAB and various governments and even basic social structures if they went rogue and decided to lead a rebellion or revolution. The jealousy rationale is simply a pretext for the real reason that limiters are there, and it's a reason that makes pretty good sense to me.
Yea, that's how I see them too. Like deadly weapons such as nukes, there must have safety precautions to protect from misuse and malice. So I don't object to their existence. The problem is that the deadly weapons are supposed to deployed as efficiently and quickly as possible when they need to be used. Otherwise, what's the point of even bothering with them? The fact that the whole place could be sacked by a powerful enough group of villains just because Hayate might be on coffee break does not go well. The fact that it can't get released by the time the entire damned place gets sacked, an important character gets kidnapped, and many are injured means there's something really wrong here. It's quite dangerous that the people that can do the job can't. The TSAB level of security is comparable to that of Star Trek, and that's not a good thing.

In any case, the real reason for them is that there wouldn't be a plot because the villains would be too easy. Mind you, I actually liked the last part of the show, so I don't abhor them that much; some exposition about a conspiracy that hindered the defensive effort would be nice though. In any case, it makes both sides look bad and thus my comment "defeated by bureaucracy".

But hey, painting the TSAB as an incompetent organization could lead to more interesting stories like, I don't know, Nanoha leading a rebellion.
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Last edited by Archon_Wing; 2009-09-23 at 20:57. Reason: double negative >.<
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Old 2009-09-23, 21:08   Link #333
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Yea, that's how I see them too. Like deadly weapons such as nukes, there must have safety precautions to protect from misuse and malice. So I don't object to their existence. The problem is that the deadly weapons are supposed to deployed as efficiently and quickly as possible when they need to be used. Otherwise, what's the point of even bothering with them? The fact that the whole place could be sacked by a powerful enough group of villains just because Hayate might be on coffee break does not go well. The fact that it can't get released by the time the entire damned place gets sacked, an important character gets kidnapped, and many are injured means there's something really wrong here. It's quite dangerous that the people that can do the job can't. The TSAB level of security is comparable to that of Star Trek, and that's not a good thing.
Yeah, I see your point here. It would be better if there was a 24/7 monitoring team (a team or 2 or 3 rotations) set up at an undisclosed location somewhere that could release the limiters at a moment's notice. They would have their finger on the button, so to speak.


Quote:

In any case, the real reason for them is that there wouldn't be a plot because the villains would be too easy. Mind you, I actually liked the last part of the show, so I don't abhor them that much; some exposition about a conspiracy that hindered the defensive effort would be nice though. In any case, it makes both sides look bad and thus my comment "defeated by bureaucracy".

But hey, painting the TSAB as an incompetent organization could lead to more interesting stories like, I don't know, Nanoha leading a rebellion.
Actually, this would probably be one of the better ways for this franchise to go once it gets back to sequels. Regius is clearly far from your ideal military/political leader. And while many of the officers of TSAB strike me as good, decent people that simply value law and order, I think that the upper echelons of TSAB are more than a bit shady. It's not enough to justify a rebellion at the moment, but the series could easily go that route. If it did, it could make for a good test for Nanoha and all - fighting against an all-encompassing system of countless soldiers and high-tech military hardware instead of against a set target.

You could also get some intriguing internal divisions, much like Civil War over in Marvel Comics. One of the good things about Nanoha is that this is an anime original anime... meaning that the sky's the limits; you're not bound by source material. The anime is the source material.
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Old 2009-09-23, 21:23   Link #334
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Actually, this would probably be one of the better ways for this franchise to go once it gets back to sequels. Regius is clearly far from your ideal military/political leader. And while many of the officers of TSAB strike me as good, decent people that simply value law and order, I think that the upper echelons of TSAB are more than a bit shady. It's not enough to justify a rebellion at the moment, but the series could easily go that route. If it did, it could make for a good test for Nanoha and all - fighting against an all-encompassing system of countless soldiers and high-tech military hardware instead of against a set target.

You could also get some intriguing internal divisions, much like Civil War over in Marvel Comics. One of the good things about Nanoha is that this is an anime original anime... meaning that the sky's the limits; you're not bound by source material. The anime is the source material.
Hmm, they have created such a extensive world to be explored. This would definitely help take advantage of it. We could get glimpses at many diffrent planets and people. I usually never object to concepts (unless it's like something gross lol); usually with enough creativity and determination you can create great stuff from the most ridiculous ideas.

But I hope that they will continue the tradition of having more grey than outright evil like Jail. Ok, Precia was evil, but she was nuts anyways. Good and bad in Nanoha is mostly summarized as one side being Nanoha and friends, and the other side being people she hasn't befriended yet. You will be her friend, whether you like it or not.
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Old 2009-09-24, 23:18   Link #335
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So how does Precia fit in? Nanoha never even shot her, not that I would want her to, if you know what I mean.
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Old 2009-09-24, 23:20   Link #336
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I guess she was one of the few that were too crazy beyond redemption. But you never know. Nanoha never had a chance to do it. ;p
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Old 2009-09-24, 23:24   Link #337
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You know, it would be interesting if Nanoha ended up shooting randomly and hit Precia, netting her a new friend, against her will.

"No, stay away! You've traumatized Fate too much to come anywhere near us!"
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Old 2009-11-23, 19:45   Link #338
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I just finished StrikerS right after going through the original and A's. Overall I definitely liked it. Of course, as a fan I find it more entertaining to discuss flaws rather than strengths. (Funny aside: my brother loved the new Star Trek and wanted me to see the movie so we could talk about it. The very first things he mentioned were the plot holes. Typical.)

So what was wrong with StrikerS? Well, aside from a significant time skip and a genre shift almost completely out of Magical Girl territory that probably shook fans (I don't see this as a flaw), the biggest problem was the slow pace at the beginning. It took nearly half the show to get into the real plot. Instead of all the focus on training and fighting Gadgets, the characters should have been thrown in over their heads against human opponents much more quickly. That was what made A's so successful: the immediate threat present from the beginning. There were no battles against human enemies until episode 12, IIRC. And no, Lutecia enhancing Gadgets doesn't count. Anyway, when StrikerS actually properly began its plot with the day off, "That Day" and the grand finale, it worked very well.

A second problem was the lack of a true central character. In hindsight, the main character was Nanoha (surprise). She had the most critical role in the finale with the most dramatic personal development. But the story felt like it should have been about Subaru! As a central character she really suffered in the first half of the show, mainly playing second fiddle to Teana's development, and despite her personal connection to the enemies, she was not very relevant in the final battle at all. Subaru should have been to StrikerS what Hayate was to A's, but instead that plot-critical role went to Vivio.

Overall, it was a good series. Hopefully there will be an animated 4th series; Al Hazard is begging for exploration, especially since Precia and even the real Alicia could return from there.
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Old 2011-04-22, 19:28   Link #339
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REVIEW TIME

Consider this a review of all three seasons and the 2010 movie.

Nanoha is a mahou shojo that messed with the archetypical formula in an attempt to not bore the viewers with a Sailor Moon rehash. Although that partially did the trick, in the longrun it felt victim of its own inability to change or make use of its own duration.

ART SECTION: 8/10
- The production values are good as far as the artwork goes. Nanoha’s setting blended the modern world with the magic of the past and the technology of the future and thus you are offered three-in-one. It has a certain variety that sets it apart from others of its kind and, when the animators were paid fully, it looked very eye-catchy.
- The characters are all drawn to be cute and most of them are kids for most of the story. Being a mahou shojo means that almost anyone important to the plot is a girl, with funky uniforms and magic gizmos that create all sorts of energy attacks. I can’t say I liked their looks; they were all quite generic and not really memorable. Plus, the animators went for fan service and thus there are lots of scenes where the girls are naked or with underwear. Nothing explicit but one really wonders if this show is for little girls with this amount of fan catering.
- The contemporary Japan areas are very typical and have nothing of interest to look at. The magic devices and the space-time spaceships on the other hand were an interesting combination.
- The problem is that there are too many obvious budget problems and that shows easily with too many use of stiff characters, scrolling panels and reused scenes. And yes, they do a lot of reusing in the transformation and attack parts. Also, the action scenes are to the most part simplistic exchange of energy beams that end up being tiresome after awhile.
- One thing that will not disappoint is the huge amount of lights and energy beams. They are filling the screen with all sorts of shapes and colors and patterns to the point you can faint if you are photo-epileptic. Very eye-catching and helps you to fight the otherwise boring battles.

SOUND SECTION: 8/10
Damn, I rarely find something to write about the sound part. Ok, I had absolutely no problem with it. The voices were not annoying (not too high-pitched to irritate me), the sound effects had an equal variety with the visual ones and the music themes were likable. But not memorable or great for any reason so I cut down some from the score.

STORY SECTION: S1: 5/10, S2: 7/10, S3: 3/10, M: 5/10 (Overall: 5/10)
The story begins in a typical fashion; cute good-hearted girl Nanoha finds Yuuno magic critter and gets powers in order to find something or stop someone. Along the way the story gets more complicating with the addition of an organization that protects the various dimensions from cosmic threats. It sounded very interesting as it blended magic with technology. But the pacing GAH, a complete mess. A major problem with the franchise that made most to give up on it.

- The first season was at first to find scattered spheres from an advanced civilization, and up until the first half it was plain boring. Nanoha and her friends had nothing of interest to fill the slice-of-life moments and the battles were short and simplistic. It is only when her rival Fate is introduced in the story that something good starts to happen. Suddenly she is taken aboard her fuzzy mascot’s spaceship, meats lots of officials and villains with their own spaceship are close by. It was a lot more enjoyable this way but towards the end you could easily see that even this twist didn’t save the story from its genericness. It was mostly about befriending the enemy rather than fighting with wits and the villains pretty much just stormed in and had their way like security didn’t matter. The finale is sweet if you like the power of friendship but otherwise very anti-climactic action-wise.
- The second season is now about finding an evil book that if it charges up fully will create lots of trouble. This season is enjoyable most of the time because it has far more interesting characters, far better action scenes, and in generally far more interesting rivals and objectives. It is otherwise again full of silly moments and again the power of friendship is all that matters in the end. One wonders why the hell do they have all these cool weapon or why they fight in general. Just hug the enemy and cry. But anyways, the second season is to the most part with good pacing.
- The third season is a bloody mess. Since nobody in this series ever dies, new characters are constantly introduced and the older ones are still present. As a result you have a huge cast that needed a lot of fleshing out or at least episodes dedicated to each one individually. Unfortunately most of the plot was nothing but a very slowly developed military operation with lots of pointless action and uninteresting villains. Plus while the duration is now twice as before, instead of using that extra time to flesh out the characters or provide emersion to the story, they just slowed down the pacing and left most of them as stunts and background decoration. IT WAS HORRIBLE!
- The movie is basically a retelling of the first season. You know, better visuals, more action, less plot, and now loli boobs come with nipples. Just for those who saw the series and want to see the same thing all over again with more superficial entertainment and less context.

In all, the main story had something good going but hardly took advantage of its potential and ended up being a half-baked cake.

CHARACTER SECTION: S1: 6/10, S2: 7/10, S3: 2/10, M: 5/10 (Overall: 5/10)
In all honesty, the cast of the franchise is pretty much stock material. They are all archetypes you will encounter in all mahou shojo in general. So all that mattered was to simply have them colorized throughout every season.

- The first season did a good job with what it had. The problem is, it only had two important girls and one secondary male mascot sidekick for twelve episodes. Although they were quite colorful, they were still archetypes and very few to excuse the duration. Otherwise, not bad for a trio.
- The second season adds almost a dozen more to the main and secondary cast and this is where things become interesting. Although nobody is still special for any reason, there is a lot of variety in personalities and their interactions feel more colorful and less bipolar in good guys – bad guys. Rather good in overall.
- The third season blew it to pieces. It introduced even more characters and pretty much didn’t bother to develop or colorize anyone enough. Not only that but now all the main girls are adults working in a military organization. Where did the magical feeling of those little girls go to? They turned from pure hearted children to military personnel; the magic is gone.

The cast was never special in any way but at least the first two seasons had some innocence in them. The third just makes everybody to feel like a footsoldier in some military academy doing his duty. Very distasteful development. Not only that, but the fan service element never left; it was there all the time showing the girls in various forms of undress. That didn’t add context to them; it took away their dignity. And seriously, watching Nanoha’s and Fate’s adult boobs bouncing like that all the time just felt like they became bitches. And wait a second; isn’t this a mahou shojo show? What the hell does a military organization doing here? And where are the romances? Not a single trace of a girl liking a boy… or another girl. Oh sure; lots of yuri innuendos for the doujins but nothing on screen. What is there to spice things about them? Their bonds of friendship? Not enough.

ENJOYMENT SECTION: S1: 6/10, S2: 7/10, S3: 2/10, M: 5/10 (Overall: 5/10)
Well, the characters is all the appeal of the show so my ratings for enjoyment are the same as for them.

VALUE SECTION: 2/10
Although it has its share of loyal fans, it is not a franchise that can keep you interested for long. In fact, I get to believe half of those who like it is because of the fan service and not because of the generic slow story or the stock characters. I see no reason for anyone to spend money on it or even a reason to rewatch it. And let’s be honest, all its interesting plot points were taken directly into their next project, Mahou Shojo Madoka Magica. Just compare the first and last episodes of season one with each other and you will see what I mean. The very little it has is already used elsewhere in a more eye-captivating way and the rest is just Sailor Moon all over again. Practically no value left in this show.

VERDICT: S1: 6/10, S2: 6.5/10, S3: 4/10, M: 5.5/10 (Overall: 5/10)
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Old 2011-09-05, 07:22   Link #340
delorean2200
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Join Date: Jul 2010
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Age: 37
Well like all good things my complete Nanoha rewatch has come to an end... damn i loved this series i can barely keep my self from rewatching it yet again right now, i for one loved StrikerS, every moment of it, i liked how they showed everything from so many perspectives and the plot was good, i liked how they show more details about the characters through the whole training part, the part with Vivio and Nanoha wasn't just adorable but was quite touching even dramatic at times, i liked the action music and story personally i don't have the slightest problem with execution, it was nice to see how the pupils trained by Nanoha evolved, Damn like i said this series was so good i just might end up and rewatching it again... I hope they will adapt Vivid and Force into a TV show as well...

PS: Nanoha's voice was gold.
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